TIPS & TRICKS

What Color Experts Want Painting Experts To Know About Color Theory

By Megan Headley
Originally published by APC (American Painting Contractor). Click here to view the original article.

How many times a week do you have a customer ask for your opinion on a color? Lots?

How many times a week do you offer your opinion on a customer’s color? Zero?

For many painting contractors, their job is strictly about applying the color—not selecting it.

“There was a painting contractor who I’ve worked with for years and when the homeowner asked him about color he would always say ‘I don’t choose the colors, I just apply the paint’,” shares Mary McMurray, owner of color consultancy Art First Colors for Architecture in Portland, Ore., and a licensed painting contractor herself for more than 30 years.

Painting contractors who take this hard line on color have every reason in the world to be defensive.

“I find that painters hesitate to voice their opinion regarding color because they don’t want to ...

There's a vicious cycle happening these days in the Painting Industry that I want to address before it gets out of hands.

Here's the thing...

Paint is not a simple product... far from that.

In fact, some products require years of research and development from highly advanced chemists (often very large teams of chemists) to make it possible for Paint to perform at high levels while being compliant with today's strict environmental regulations.

And depending on the clients needs... and who is going to be applying the paint (a "DIY" or Professional Painter as an example), the "right" paint for the project might be two completely different products.

So where am I going with this?

Well this is such a touchy subject to tackle since "fixing" this vicious cycle will require all parties involved to work together. 

Be sure to watch this weeks video in full for a better understanding of the situation and how I propose we can start changing things around.

"What brush are you using?" 

This is a question I've been asked countless time over the years. Which is why I decided to shoot this video where I share with you my 2 favorite paint brushes... and why I love them so much.

Are you planning on buying a house soon? 🏡

Did you already buy a house and your closing date is fast approaching? 📆

Are you a Painter and want a few tricks to help your clients experience the Power of Color? 😊

If so, be sure to watch this weeks Tips & Tricks video!

Have you ever had small bubbles show up on your freshly painted walls?

Want to know how to repair those... or better yet, how to avoid this?

If so, be sure to watch this weeks Tips & Tricks Video.

If you're ready to take your KNOWLEDGE of PAINT to the Next Level, be sure to check out the Interior Repaint Expert - PAINTER Training Program:

2 MINUTES LATE:  “Are you almost here?”

6 MINUTES LATE:  “Everyone is here! Where are you?”

13 MINUTES LATE:  “Did you forget about the meeting?”

20 MINUTES LATE:  “Is everything okay, Remi?”

This was a training exercise that our team never forgot…

One of the things that I’m known for is my punctuality. It’s not uncommon for clients to tell me “My gosh, when you say 1:30pm you really mean 1:30pm!”

TIME is a commodity I put a high value on both for others and myself.

So when I told my team “today’s meeting is particularly important so please make sure to be here by 3pm and don’t be late”… NO ONE was late…  except for me!

You see, back in the summer of 2009 we had started to meet every Monday afternoons at 3:30pm for some coaching, bonding & to basically give everyone a chance to voice their concern or offer solutions to existing problems so that we could all learn and grow together as a team.

Back then it had come to my attention that we had received a few phone calls from cl...

To be able to give an ACCURATE Painting Estimate, you'll need to uncover the following 2 things:

1. The NUMBERS
2. The VARIABLES

When I say NUMBERS, this mostly means the square footage of the area to be painted. Since once you have this number, you can then figure out how much paint and labor hours will be needed.

HOWEVER...

The VARIABLES will also need to be factored in since those could make a BIG DIFFERENCE in both the labor hours and the paint that will be required to complete the project.

EXAMPLE 1:

Let's say you have 2 identical houses. Both have the exact same square footage. The first house has 1 color for all of the walls... and the second one has 10 different colors with multiple rooms having 2 different colors in them.

The variable in this example is the number of colors. And this will have a BIG impact on both the number of gallons of paint AND the number of labor hours that will be needed to complete this project

EXAMPLE 2:

Let's say you have the same 2 houses. Ag...

If a homeowner were to offer you some coffee or tea while you're there painting their home, what would be your instinctual answer?

• No thank you, I'm good
• Sure that would be great, thanks

Now, I want to be clear, there's no RIGHT or WRONG answer.

BUT...

In this weeks video, I'll share with you the reason why I would encourage you to always say YES!

Are you currently carrying a Brush Extender in your Painting Kit?

Most Painters will tend to answer yes to this questions. (And if you're currently not carrying one, I'd strongly recommend that you look into it.)

But are you taking FULL ADVANTAGE of it's power?

Be sure to watch this weeks Tips & Tricks video where we'll show you how we used this simple tool to:

1. Save BIG CHUNKS OF TIME and dramatically improve our Productivity
2. Make things much easier for our clients and dramatically IMPROVE THEIR EXPERIENCE.

Be sure to watch this week's Tips & Tricks video where we'll first show you how this is done using only a paint brush... and then discuss the theory of how this works so you can have a better understanding of your paint brush and how to get the most out of it.